Mangalore: October 4, Thursday proved to be a great day in the history of the Mangalore Airport at Bajpe when it was finally granted an international status.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram made the announcement after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. Along with Mangalore, even the Trichy, Lucknow, Varanasi and Coimbatore airports have been granted international status.

“These airports already have infrastructure like immigration and customs to handle the international operations. In fact some of them already do have some international flights. With this (decision) we expect that these airports will be able to attract more international flights and travellers,” P Chidambaram said after the meeting.

Mangalore Airport Director MR Vasudeva who is to retire in October end said he was immensely pleased and  pointed out how the airport authorities have been striving since the past few years to get the international tag for the airport.

Even MP Jayaprakash Hegde has expressed his pleasure and hoped the international status would benefit the people of the region and would also increase passenger traffic.